Invited by Sunlight

The garden today is covered in fallen leaves, yellow, golden brown and red carpeting, with such a colourful pattern, the still green grass and the dark earth in which the plants are starting to bed down for winter.

Caught in the sunlight is a bench in what we call the healing garden, a place dedicated to medicinal plants. Illuminated as if in Gods spotlight, this morning it invited me to sit a while and to ponder the changing seasons.

Scrunching my way over the leaves, unable to make out if there was an intended path, I thought of the moments God had blessed me, the times I had felt I was dancing in divine light, those joyful times when I felt as if I was walking on air. They perhaps only lasted a few seconds or days, but each one was transformative…

Once seated on the bench, I could look into the small pond, surly the pond was only shallow? But the reflections appeared to go on far bellow the ground level far beyond the depth that I could see, reaching down into the mystery of the earth, touching those parts deep within myself that I am yet to fully understand.

Above me I was sheltered, as if cradled by a bamboo arbour, which despite the time of year, was still sprouting fresh green leaves as if in defiance of the season. Signs perhaps of hope, the promise of new life to come.

I wonder if you sat on the bench today, what thoughts God might bring to your mind of times past, things to let fall, deep mysteries and encouragement of new hopes?

Liz

The Bright Field

I have seen the sun break through

to illuminate a small field

for a while, and gone my way

and forgotten it. But that was the

pearl of great price, the one field that had

treasure in it. I realise now

that I must give all that I have

to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after

an imagined past. It is the turning

aside like Moses to the miracle

of the lit bush, to a brightness

that seemed as transitory as your youth

once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

R S Thomas